Telegram pushes deeper into AI messaging

Telegram has rolled out a broad product update that adds a private AI writing tool, a major expansion of polling functions, support for Live Photos and Motion Photos, and a new system that lets bots create and manage other bots, in a move that sharpens the platform’s push into AI-assisted messaging and developer automation. The update was announced on March 31, 2026, with related bot-management changes added to Telegram’s Bot API on April 3.

At the centre of the release is an AI Editor built into the message bar. Telegram said the tool can fix grammar, rewrite text in different styles and translate messages into other languages in a couple of taps. The company says the feature appears after a user types more than three lines of text, and that it is powered by its Cocoon AI network, which Telegram describes as a confidential environment with zero access to user data. Cocoon’s own developer material says user data is encrypted and processed inside confidential virtual machines, a claim aimed at distinguishing Telegram’s approach from mainstream cloud AI services that often face scrutiny over data handling.

That privacy claim matters because Telegram is entering a crowded field where AI assistance has become a battleground for messaging and productivity platforms. Telegram had already introduced AI summaries for channel posts and Instant View pages in January 2026, also framed around privacy and Cocoon’s decentralised infrastructure. The new editor extends that strategy from passive summarisation to active message composition, suggesting Telegram wants AI to become a routine part of everyday chat rather than a specialist add-on.

Polls are another major focus of the update. Telegram said it has added more than 10 new poll functions, including the ability to attach media or locations to questions and answer choices, add descriptions, allow users to suggest options in active polls, show visible votes, disable revoting, shuffle answer choices, set time limits and hide results until voting closes. Telegram also said the new settings support more complex quizzes, including multiple correct answers. Those changes are mirrored in Bot API 9.6, which replaces the single correct answer field with multiple correct answers and adds controls for revoting, shuffling and hidden results.

The breadth of the polling upgrade points to a commercial logic as well as a social one. Telegram has long been used by communities, political campaigners, traders, educators and media publishers that rely on lightweight audience feedback tools. Richer polls with media, visible votes and option suggestions could make the app more useful for audience engagement, community management and informal research, while also raising fresh questions over privacy and peer pressure in group settings when vote visibility is enabled. Telegram says group creators with visible-vote polls will receive notifications each time someone responds, including the option selected.

The update also brings native support for iOS Live Photos and Android Motion Photos across Telegram apps. That change is less headline-grabbing than AI, but it closes a practical gap in mobile messaging by preserving lightweight motion within still images without forcing users to send full videos. Telegram said the files can now be viewed in any Telegram app, a step that should improve cross-platform consistency for users moving between Apple and Android devices.

For developers, the most consequential change may be managed bots. Telegram’s Bot API now includes new fields, objects and methods that allow a bot to request the creation of another bot, manage that bot and obtain or replace its token. Telegram also added link formats that can trigger creation of a managed bot with a suggested username and name. In plain terms, this lowers the friction for automated services, customer support tools and mini apps that need to spin up tailored bots for end users.

That capability could deepen Telegram’s appeal as a platform for services rather than only conversations. It also introduces another layer of complexity for moderation, security and impersonation control, especially if bot creation becomes easier at scale. Telegram has not positioned the feature as open-ended self-replication; rather, it is tied to bots that have management enabled through BotFather tools. Even so, simpler bot provisioning is likely to attract attention from developers building commerce, support and AI agent workflows inside chat.